Awakened Sage
by Umodin
Summary: Jak thought that he was a goner, it was supposed to be a simple run through the Wasteland to collect artifacts, but the storms caught up faster than he expected. Only, instead of dying to the vicious winds, he fell into a sink hole that lead to a cave system. There, he, along with Daxter, found a legacy that would shake the very bones of this world. "Right, well I'm Naruto."


As Jak rode on the Tough Puppy, he belatedly understood the seriousness of Damos' words, regardless of their playful undertone.

 _Jak had just finished Klievers race and returned to Spargus' gate, only to be face to face with King Damos and Pecker riding on his shoulder._

" _Nice wheelwork. My advisor here says you have vehicle skills" Damos motioned his head towards Pecker, who puffed out his feathered chest with faux pride._

 _Jak offered a smirk, "I can hold my own."_

 _Pecker cut in from Damos' shoulder, "This one will be of use to us Damos. I think you should keep him for now-"_

" _-can it Pecker!" Dax blurted out, making Jak roll his eyes and Pecker seethe. Damos ignored the two animals and continued on as if the only ones in the garage were him and Jak._

" _There are a number of artifacts to be found in the Wasteland. Fresh storms churn the sand and reveal items that have been buried for centuries. Take the vehicle, and find as many items before the storms come again."_

 _Jak nodded, he knew that doing this would secure a more comfortable stay in Spargus. As he put on his goggles and readied the Tough Puppy once more for an excursion, Damos cut in._

" _And one more thing. If you get caught in the storms, they will tear the flesh from your very bones."_

 _Dax sighed, "Oh great, thanks for the pep talk pal!" he groaned out sarcastically._

 _Jak nodded, only slightly, "Are there any places in the Wasteland that we could wait out the storm in, just in case?"_

 _Damos seemed to ponder, before he gave a sharp nod, "Rare though they may be, sink holes appear during the storms on occasion. I have heard tale from a Wastelander older than I that had been lucky enough to survive the storms by falling in them. The sinkholes, I was told, lead to a system of caves that are buried well. If you ever fall in one, you will still likely die due to hunger."_

 _Jak nodded. Damos, it seemed, was harsh like the deserts and gave no false hope, only the truth. If he was still In Haven City, Jak may have been put out, but the attitude was refreshing in his generally morbid life, and he couldn't find fault for Damos._

 _Offering one last curt nod to Damos, Jak slammed on the gas of the Tough Puppy, back into the abyss that was the Wasteland._

It had started off well enough; he collected 12 artifacts and a weird pair of bracers. However, what he did not account for was the ridiculous amount of Outlanders that wanted him to die.

He'd been held up by them for so long, driving like a mad man in order to dodge their flurry of lasers and suicidal driving skills, that he didn't realize until it was too late that the winds were too strong. He couldn't see, and he could _feel_ the sand tearing away at his skin ever so slowly.

"Well Dax, I think we bit more than we could chew this time around."

Dax groaned, hiding between Jak's legs in order to keep the sand off of his fur "Keep driving! If I'm gunna die I won't let it be by something this stupid!"

Jak ignored Dax and just kept driving. They were _likely_ to die, but he had no intention of kicking the bucket without attempting to get out.

As he drove, he continued to feel the sand tear away at his flesh, just as Damos had said it would. He could see the tendons in his fingers as they kept a firm grip on the Tough Puppy's steering wheel.

He kept a lookout, and as he turned to the left he saw the entire reason he was still out in this storm.

An armored vehicle with a single turret on its top was firing at him. The damned Outlanders had it out for him, just for having access to Spargus. He remembered the brief history that was taught to him when he was initially recovering from being thrown into the Wasteland. How the Outlanders were an older group that were kicked out of Spargus due to many things such as murder, betrayal and weakness. They and their descendants, in rage, made it their goal in life to kill any and all Wastelanders that left Spargus City.

It was during this attack that the sand hurled a rock directly at his fingers. A snap was heard and Jak couldn't help but snatch his hand up, which caused him to lose control of the Tough Puppy. Without his hand on the wheel nor any proper control of the small vehicle, the Outlander was easily able to catch up to Jak.

From the Outlander vehicle, a war cry could be heard, and before Jak knew it he was slammed into by the rusted metal.

He closed his eyes and let darkness overtake him.

* * *

Jak was awoken by the feeling of cold water being slapped onto his face. He jumped up, looking around wildly only to see Daxter, his best friend, sitting by the edge of a puddle with a frown on his face. Next to Daxter was the Tough Puppy, or what remained of it at least.

Jak looked around, not believing that he could have survived such harsh conditions, to see where in the hell he and Daxter were.

It was a long narrow cave, with grains of sand falling all around from the rock covered roof. What was more interesting than anything though were the precursor torches lit with flickers of Blue Eco that filled the cavern.

Jak turned to Daxter, who was holding "What happened?"

"Well fell through one'a them sink holes Damos was tellin' us about. That Outlander bit the dust though, his ride just blew up on him."

Jak nodded, looking around the cave curiously. He sighed, and went to the wreckage that was the Tough Puppy. All the artifacts that they had gathered were crushed, all aside from those weird bracers. He grabbed the bronze armor and put them on his forearms, having no other place to put them.

"C'mon Dax, let's see if we can't find a way outa here."

Daxter jumped on his shoulder and together they walked down the dimly lit cavern.

Time seemed to pass slower in these caves, or that was what Jak and Daxter believed. There was no true way to tell time, what with the sun being out of sight.

The Eco torches became brighter and brighter as they made their way through. What was once a dim navy blue light was now near a blinding azure.

After likely hours of walking, they duo came across an end to the tunnel. The torches convoluted at a large door, with the same seal that he had worn as a necklace when he was a child prominent on the door: the seal of Mar. Jak may not have cared too much for history, but upon learning that he was originally a denizen of Haven city he had taken to pestering Samos about his lineage every time the two were together. Samos kept a tight lid on the subject, but he did cave and let out that the necklace he once wore was the symbol of Mar.

Jak looked over the door, not exactly sure if he should open it or not, and as he waited Daxter jumped off from his shoulder going off on one of his usual rants.

"Finally! We've been walkin around for hours!" He went up to the door, "Now ain't this a beaut? Don't it remind you of that door we saw before we got to Haven City?"

Jak looked over the door with scrutiny, only to find that Daxter was right. The door didn't seem to use Power Cells as the other one did, but it _did_ have the same shape and standard bronze coloring that most other Precursor items had.

He felt… drawn to the door. Like he was meant to find it. Slowly, ever so slowly, Jak reached out his hand and touched to bronze door. Immediately after placing his fingers to the door, he could feel the Dark Eco in his body surge forth. His skin and hair turned grey, his nails turned black and lengthened and his pupils dilated so far that they covered the whole of his sclera.

Normally when using the form that was nicknamed Dark Jak, Jak had almost no control. The only thing he could do was tell who was and wasn't meant to be slaughtered and aim his rage. But this time, this time he felt completely in control. The Dark Eco was absorbed into the door, and he could hear cogs grinding. The Blue Eco torches that surrounded the door were absorbed into the bronze, and all at once the grinding of the cogs stopped.

He felt the Dark Eco dissipate and his original coloring return. The Precursor Door turned in on itself, the symbol of Mar glowing a bright blue, and the whole of the door began to shift underground.

From behind the door was a room, or a room of sorts. There was no stone, no bronze- just Eco. Crystals of pure Eco ranging from all the variants, including Dark and Light Eco, were conjoined at a single point. A pillar that looked like a crystal rainbow stood in the middle of the room.

Jak couldn't help but stare at the beauty in this room; it reminded him back before he was brought to Haven City, the naturalness of this place that seemed to be without the touch of man.

Daxter, naturally, cut him out of his thoughts, "Woah! Look at that Jak! I betcha if we sold it we'd be able to buy Haven City!" He ran up to the overly large crystal and hugged it.

It was one thing for Jak to have the ability to open doors, he'd been bathed in Dark Eco and even before that was able to let Eco dwell in his body. But when Daxter, upon touching the crystal, caused it to glow an iridescent red, Jak knew that this could only be trouble. He pulled out his gun, using the Blaster mod to ensure speed and power in the form of a Yellow Eco bullet. He pointed his sights at the crystal, waiting for whatever was to come to come.

From inside the crystal, now glowing green, he could make out a humanoid form. There was no way to determine what it looked like, the only thing he was certain of was that whatever was in there had fairly short pointed ears and spikey hair.

The man's eyes opened from inside the crystal- red with black slit pupils were staring at both Jak and Daxter. A howl came from the crystal and cracks formed around its edges, staring from the head of the man and quickly covering the whole of the large Eco crystal. The color of the crystal turned yellow, and in a blast of Yellow Eco, it shattered into thousands of pieces, the man from inside the crystal fell onto the floor without any bit of grace.

After the light died down Jak got a good look at whoever was inside of the crystal. He was a man looking to be in his twenties, with unusually short pointed ears and bright blonde hair with red roots, similar to his own only Jak's roots were green, though the spikes in the front stuck up in a way that made them look like horns. The man wore armor of Precursor bronze, only it seemed to be a lighter shade, making it look more like a burnt orange than a bronze. Upon his face were 6 black bars, 3 on each cheek, and those same red eyes. Finally, he had a single piece of metal on his forehead that had the symbol of Mar on it.

The stranger got up, and Jak noted he was only slightly taller than he was, and looked around the room blearily. He settled his stare on Jak and for a while they just stared at each other in silence, while Jak kept the Blaster trained on his face.

Finally his beastly looking eyes widened comically, his jaw dropped and he pointed a finger at Jak, "Mar?! I thought you were dead!" His voice had a bit of a rasp to it, but he sounded healthy enough. He then looked at Daxter and snorted, his arms crossing in front of his chest, "And you brought along another furball- at least this one isn't as fat as yours is."

Daxter looked deeply insulted and Jak kept a cool stare on the man, "The names Jak, not Mar. The otsel's Daxter."

The man blinked, making him look somewhat vulpine, and sheepishly scratched the back of his head with a fanged smile.

"Right, well I'm Naruto."

* * *

Naruto was, for lack of better words, confused. He knew why he was sealed, Mar had said that there would come a time when the Dark Makers would return, and while he would be long dead Naruto might have a chance at living still.

Ever since the battle with Kaguya, in which the bitch had sent him into a different dimension and then didn't bother to finish him off, things had changed. This new world did not have any Chakra, and the Chakra in his body- including Kurama- had no place here. It turned into what was known as Eco, and he and Kurama completely fused.

He was brought here while using the Tailed Beast State, so when he lost Chakra he still attained parts of that form. His blue eyes were forevermore turned into Kurama's red with the Bijuu's slit black pupils. His whiskers turned into those bars. And his spiky blonde hair gained red roots while also spiking so strongly in the front that they looked like horns.

His and Kurama's personalities fused as well. Naruto's naturally cheerful persona now held the morbid humor of Kurama, and Kurama's millennia of apathetic wisdom now took the place of Naruto's barely 17 years of foolhardiness. It was strange; he was no longer Naruto Uzumaki nor was he Kurama Ootsutsuki. This world did not have surnames, and so he only went by Naruto and when the need arose, he went by Kurama.

He was, originally, a ball of angst. Who would be after understanding that their world and friends were dead and he could do nothing about it? And when he learned that he no longer had his Chakra, he truly despaired.

That was until he met Mar.

Mar was a man of many things, and one of those things was a sympathetic ear. He heard Naruto's tale, and though he was skeptical, he offered support and companionship to the former shinobi. It was then, that due to his fusing with Kurama that Naruto learned he was what Mar called an irregularity.

He held the 4 basic Eco's of Red, Yellow, Blue and Green inside his body, similar to how Mar held both Dark and Light Eco inside his body.

So they trained, Mar teaching Naruto how to use his Eco in both combat and everyday life and Naruto teaching Mar the disciplines of the Shinobi and that of the Sage. Mar told Naruto that he wanted to build a city where the whole of the world could come together in peace.

It was at that moment that Naruto declared Mar his liege, similar to how he had declared Konoha his home at one point in time, and traded in Leaf hitai with one holding Mar's symbol on it.

Mar and Naruto were the builders of Haven, yet Naruto, after years of wisdom from Kurama, opted not to be mentioned. He didn't want attention anymore; he had no need for it. Mar was his liege, and the man deserved all the credit, for all Naruto did was lift some rocks with Red Eco and power some tools with Blue Eco.

Naruto, upon learning that the Dark Makers would return, opted to be sealed away. Dark Makers were just as they were; they were beings that created Dark Eco from planets they claimed. They set it so that the moment Dark Eco touched the crystal he was sealed in that he would be freed. Mar, with a heavy heart, agreed with Naruto's plan.

So, naturally, it was quite a shock when instead of being woken up by the chaos that was a Dark Maker ship, he was awoken from his hibernation by a Mar lookalike- the kid even had a mini Daxter. So when he called out his supposedly long dead friend and heard that this kid was a guy named Jak and the rodent was Daxter…

Well, Naruto knew Mar's story, so he could say with complete and total honesty that he was not expecting to meet the younger form of his liege, nor his Precursor friend without the blubber.

Naruto was many things, but when he fused with Kurama he gained something that he never once possessed prior to becoming what he was now.

Subtlety.

He scratched the back of his head and offered a sheepish smile towards Jak.

"Right, well I'm Naruto."

* * *

Jak surveyed this Naruto with a narrowed eye before sighing and putting his gun away. The guy didn't look like bad news, and Jak generally trusted his gut when it came to people. Kor didn't count, he wasn't a person.

"What were you doing in that crystal?"

Naruto shrugged, his hands finding their way into his pockets as he looked around the room with a narrowed eye, "I was waiting for something. Hey, why's my cave so dark?"

"We're buried underground."

"What?! My cave was nice and open, we carved it into a _mountain_ for Precursors sake."

Jak raised an eyebrow, how could this guy not expect his little cave to be covered by the storms? "Wasteland storms cover everything; the cave is buried under the sand. Along with us."

Naruto groaned loudly, "Seriously? How long was I asleep? When we built my cave it was on an open plain, not a damned desert."

Jak blinked and Daxter scoffed, "Yeah right bub! Nobodies older then a desert!"

Naruto just ignored Daxter, "Right, I need to see what the desert looks like. You two're stuck in my cave, right?"

Jak nodded and Daxter's eye twitched at Naruto's blatant disregard.

Naruto nodded, "Right, well, let's fix that."

Naruto held up his arm skyward, and what astounded Jak was that his arm began to glow like the sun. Naruto winked at Jak and, from his arm, a gigantic blast of pure Yellow Eco escape and rocketed towards cave ceiling. Crystals flew all around the room and sand seeped down, but the trio could see the sun finally.

As Jak and Daxter both looked at the casual display of power Naruto performed, Naruto himself walked over to the pair and grabbed them- Jak by his waist and Daxter by the scruff of his neck.

Naruto's legs began to glow red, and upon squatting down, he rocketed through the hole he made. The trio landed in the sand, the storms having ended, and Naruto threw them down. Jak looked at Naruto with wide eyes, never before having seen such use of Eco before, and Daxter was having what appeared to be a spaz attack.

"Alright bub! Never, and I mean _never_ do that to me again!"

Naruto snorted, "We're out of my cave rodent, I figured your comfort was worthy compensation."

Daxter made to yell once more but Jak covered his mouth quickly. He nodded to Naruto, "Thank you."

Looking around the area, he noted that they were at the base of the volcano located at the middle of the Wasteland, "Any chance you could help us go north? That's where Spargus is."

Naruto looked Jak over, then abruptly squatted down, "Hop on."

Jak winced, not liking having to do such an action, but grumbled an affirmative. He snatched Daxter up and placed his friend on his shoulder, then slowly made his way over to Naruto and got on the mans back.

Naruto chuckled, he knew this was awkward, but the results would be worth it. He looked to the sun, noting its location and understood that the north of this island was to his left. His body began to glow blue and in a burst of speed to trio made off. Jak increased his hold on Naruto's body from what was a reluctant hold to a death grip.

In only minutes the trio found their way to Spargus garage gate. Naruto's body returned to its normal color and Jak and Daxter both hopped off of him, Jak needing to steady himself and Daxter needing to hurl.

Jak through one last look at Naruto, "How do you do that?"

Naruto looked him over humorously, and his answer would affect Jak for the rest of his years.

"My name is Naruto, I also go by Kurama, and I was and am the Eco Sage of Mar."

* * *

A/N: Hey there guys, Umodin here once more with another ficlet idea that popped into mind. I've had this idea of a crossover between Naruto/Jak3 and Naruto/Avatar but haven't been able to put it to pen until recently. SO! Here's the way i've thought it up.

Naruto is OP, there is no question, but he will be subtle about his abilities. He understands that Jak is Mar, and it is Mar's destiny to defeat the Dark Makers, not his. He'll be more along the lines of a guide than anything else for Jak.

If you liked this please Favorite/Follow and don't forget to pop me a Review


End file.
